The last few days of training have been pretty tough. My body was definitely feeling the worse-for-wear after three consecutive training sessions (2.5-3hrs each). I had hoped to get to Wednesday afternoon before I had a session off but after yesterday's morning session I was completely nackered. I retired to bed for the rest of the day. I was a bit worried that this wouldn't work but at this morning's session I felt great. Listening to my body and taking time off payed dividends!

Did my first sparring session this morning which was hard but good. Paired up with another student with a longer reach. I was basically concentrating on blocking his punches and using the front 'push-kick' to keep him at bay. In the ring is where the skill and knowledge of the Sinbi trainers (most of which at provincial champions) really comes to the fore. In between rounds one of the trainers came up to me and pointed out a very different counter attack to the drills we'd been doing and tells me to it a try. The next round I took a few punches then let rip....left kick, right kick, left kick, punch, jab, punch which basically had him back on the ropes on the other side of the ring. Heh, heh, heh it did feel good.....the down side is I was so stuffed after this effort I had to go back to blocking for a while. In my defense this was after two and a half hours of training......fitness is improving.

Last Sunday I went into Phuket town with another guy from the camp to have a look around. We had a good wander and checked out some of the local markets with some cool food (of the insectoid variety). It was a good afternoon until we had to come home then I remembered why I don't like touristy areas. Every cab and motor bike driver in Phuket looks at farang?(foreigners) and puts the price up to ridiculous amounts - basically twice what it cost us originally to get into town. Its not that this is a particularly large amount of money its just the principle. We tried to argue it down and even go to other cabs but the drivers chased us down the road. Frustrated we eventually walked off and got two scooters for high but not completely unreasonable price. The good thing about the camp is that we're out of the normal touristed areas. There is a lot of foreigners around but they generally live in the area. The prices are more than a Thai person would pay but are reasonable (I splurged on breakfast this morning so it cost me AUD$3) and the people are friendly and generally helpful once they see you around for a few days.